Syntheses and NLO Properties of B- and N-cored Metal Alkynyl Dendrimers

New high-performance nonlinear optical (NLO) materials are required for applications in photonics, nanophotonics and biophotonics. Metal alkynyl dendrimers are stable, can be readily processed, and can be highly efficient NLO materials, but examples thus far lack polarizing groups at the dendrimer core that should further enhance NLO performance and thereby their potential for use in the various applications. This project combines the disparate strengths in chemistry and physics of ANU and the University of Durham to afford electron-poor and electron-rich main group atom-cored dendrimers, evaluate their NLO merit, and thereby assess their potential in nonlinear optics.